On January 12, 2012 it was reported that three teenagers in Boulder County, Colorado sadistically herded four geese into the street so they could deliberately run over them with their SUV. Three of the geese died at the scene, with the fourth succumbing to death a few days later at Greenwood Wildlife Rehabilitation Center.
Victor – the goose that survived being hit by an SUV died on January 6th. (photo credit: CBS Denver)

This comes on the heels of another Boulder incident a few months ago in which three students viciously killed a raccoon with a baseball bat, machete and hockey stick.

Many local citizens believe these teens should be charged with felony animal cruelty and, if found guilty, prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. 

As long as incidents like these are passed off as “boys will be boys” matters, nothing will change. In addition, studies and statistics make it very clear that violence to humans quite often follows violence to animals.

In Mississippi in 1997, 16 year old Luke Woodham killed his mother and two students, and injured seven other students. He had earlier written in his diary about the torture and killing of his own dog, Sparkle. Diary entries stated, “I’ll never forget the sound of her breaking under my might. I will never forget the howl she made . . . It sounded almost human. We laughed and hit her more.” An adult neighbor witnessed Sparkle’s killing, but never reported it to police or animal control. Could intervention have prevented the human tragedy that followed?

I agree that this is very difficult to read and you might want to look away, but it’s not as difficult as it was for the tortured dog or the dead and injured humans.

Fortunately, Boulder District Attorney Stan Garnett has stated with regard to animal cruelty cases, “We want to make these cases a priority because they matter to the community on a lot of different levels . . .There seems to be a correlation between people who abuse animals and people who abuse other people.” The DA’s office has decided to charge two of the teens with, among other charges, Aggravated Cruelty to Animals which is a felony. The teens will appear before the judge on February 1, 2012.

We strongly believe that violence in all its forms will never stop if we don’t take animal cruelty seriously and treat these cases like the heinous acts they are.